The day before
Seamus and I were on our way to Miami. We’d booked the earliest flight we could get when Sergej revealed the information to us. He was a businessman first, and doing business with me was more important than protecting certain information.
“Why didn’t you tell, Aislinn?”
“It’s not the right time yet. We don’t know what we’ll find. I’d like to know the details before I reveal anything to Aislinn. She’s emotionally invested.”
“It’s her sister. Of course she is! You’d be invested if one of your brothers disappeared.”
“If one of my brother’s disappeared, I’d know they were either dead or in serious danger. Aislinn’s sister is after money and dick. She’s not in danger.”
“She’s with a Russian business-man, not the best source of money.”
Imogen wasn’t my problem, and yet she was. Aislinn wouldn’t rest until she knew what had happened to her sister. From what I’d found out about the woman Gulliver described and the countless other accounts of people at the Doom Loop, it was obvious what had happened. She was a leech and was currently sucking money from a rich asshole in exchange for sucking his dick.
Right after we landed, we grabbed a taxi to the marina. Sergej had given me the number of the jetty where I’d find the yacht Imogen was currently living on. Maksim, the owner of said yacht, knew of our visit. Sergej’s word was probably the only reason why he even received us.
The sun was setting over the ocean as we headed down the jetty toward his yacht “ALYONA” named after his wife. I smiled wryly.
“Do you think Imogen knows about his wife?”
“She doesn’t care.”
“Maybe he told her a sob story about being a widower.”
I slanted a disbelieving look at Seamus. “As if that were necessary. She wants his money, not his heart—if he even had one.”
Two bodyguards stood at the end of the jetty, barring the way toward the yacht. It was one of the medium-sized ones but knowing the price of rent at this place, Maksim was still stinking rich.
“No violence?”
“No violence today. We’re here as Sergej’s friends. We should act accordingly.”
“Friends,” Seamus spat out.
I chuckled. Behind the two bodyguards, a very tall, blond man in his fifties appeared. He was fit, dressed completely in white—even down to the white slippers—and it was clear his face had undergone a few plastic surgeries but overall Imogen could have chosen worse, at least from a physical standpoint. I wouldn’t touch many of the sponsors in Sodom with a ten-foot pole.
“Sergej warned me about your visit.” The two bodyguards stepped aside. “Come on board. Sergej’s friends are my friends.” He made a welcoming gesture, but I didn’t let that fool me. Seamus would keep an eye on the two guards while I chatted with Maksim and later Imogen.
I shook hands with Maksim and gave him a tight smile. “Did Sergej tell you why I wanted to pay you a visit?”
“Because of Imogen. He says you have an interest in her.” His eyes became snake-like. He wasn’t protective, maybe a tad possessive, but mainly he was interested in a possible bargain.
“She’s my wife’s sister. She ceased contact, which made my wife worry. She thought something might have happened to her.”
Maksim snickered. “She’s spending my money, that’s what’s happening.”
I nodded. “I assume you don’t intend to leave your wife for her?”
He snickered again and ran a hand through his hair. “My wife is loyal. She spends my money too, but at least she doesn’t complain. Imogen isn’t a girl you marry, it’s a girl you …” He chuckled and wiggled his eyebrows. “You know.”
“Fuck.” I scrubbed a hand over my face, not in the mood to beat around the bush.
He nodded. “She’s keeping me entertained, so I intend to keep her for a bit.” Then his gaze darted to something behind me. I turned and spotted Imogen in the seating area inside the yacht.
“Sergej told me to trust you, so I’ll give you privacy. You should know I don’t mind sharing, but I prefer to watch.”
“I won’t be touching her. I’m married to her sister and I’m loyal.”
Maksim disappeared to the upper deck, and I moved down the few steps below deck. Imogen’s sister painted her nails but stopped when she noticed me. Clad in only a very skimpy white bikini, she rose to her feet,. She tilted her head and smiled. “I remember you.”
“Do you?”
She nodded. “I saw a few articles on the internet. You’re Lorcan Devaney. You married my sister.”
So she knew that Aislinn was in New York. “And you didn’t consider giving your sister a call to tell her you’re okay or maybe congratulate her?”
I walked closer to her, growing annoyed by her blasé attitude.
“She seemed to be doing all right. I wouldn’t have thought she’d ever be this adventurous, but I’m glad she’s finally pulling her head out of the sand.”
Was she daft or just playing dumb?
“Your sister came to New York because she was worried about you. She thought something had happened, especially when she found out you were looking for sponsors in the Doom Loop.”
Imogen laughed, but it sounded off. She watched me warily. Maybe she finally noticed I was pissed and not falling for her body or her charm. There were many women like her on the hunt for sponsors at the Doom Loop. I’d always stayed far away from them.
“She’s always worrying over nothing.”
I lost it and stalked closer, backing her against the table. “Then you should have called her and told her that you’re fine.”
“Aislinn wouldn’t have believed me. She would have tried to talk to me in person, or tried to make me feel guilty.”
“For leaving your son?”
She blanched. “You mean Finn?”
“Are there more children out there you abandoned for your own selfish reasons?”
“I have my reasons. Finn doesn’t need me. He has Mum and Aislinn.”
I gritted my teeth. “He’s in New York, with me and Aislinn. When you return, you can see him.”
“I won’t return. Maksim and I will be cruising the Caribbean for a few weeks, and after that, he’s going to introduce me to a producer in Los Angeles. New York’s behind me.”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t put too much faith into Maksim. This yacht has his wife’s name on it, not yours or the name of the many mistresses that came before you. You’re a blip in time for him.”
She smiled with fake confidence. “I can handle myself and Maksim.”
I took a bundle of cash from my pocket. “Three thousand dollars in case you need money to return to New York or get away from Maksim. Just in case.”
“Maksim has been very generous.” Still, she stuffed my money into the Louis Vuitton bag on the leather bench. “Don’t tell Aislinn you found me. It’ll make things worse. She’ll still want to safe me from a life I chose, and she’ll guilt trip me. I can’t have that now. I need to focus on myself. This is my chance.”
My lips curled in contempt. I turned on my heel and returned to the deck. Maksim leaned on the rail above my head. “Everything settled?”
“Indeed. Enjoy the Caribbean,” I muttered with a salute. Then, I disembarked the boat, hating how the ground felt under my feet when I returned to land. I wasn’t a fan of boats and yachts, never had been. I liked a steady life that a house or apartment offered.
Seamus caught up with me while I ordered an Uber on my phone. “No luck?”
“She’s determined to use Maksim until she has what she wants. A new sponsor with more money and better contacts.”
“He’ll dump her before that happens. The Doom Loop is full of desperate, very pretty girls.”
“I know, and I believe so does she. She thinks she’s clever, and maybe she is, but definitely not as clever as she thinks.”
“Aislinn will want to talk to her.”
“Probably,” I said. Even if Aislinn trusted me, which she didn’t, she would want to talk to her sister in person once I told her the truth. She believed her sister was a good person. She was wrong. “But I won’t tell her. It won’t make her feel better. It’ll only aggravate her.”
The Uber car pulled up and we got in. The driver scanned us with obvious worry but drove anyway.
“She won’t just forget her sister. She’ll keep looking and fearing the worst, or maybe even suspect you.”
“She asked around. Nobody saw me with Imogen. Why should she suspect me without any leads? She’ll be busy with Finn for a few weeks, and maybe by then, Imogen will be crawling back to New York with her tail between her legs because Maksim found a new cunt.”
Seamus watched me with drawn brows. “At some point, you’ll have to tell her, you know? The truth will come out. It always does.”
“To what outcome?”
“She’ll be heartbroken but uncertainty can be just as bad.”
“You got your calling wrong. You should take Gulliver’s place and appeal to people’s conscience. You’re better at it than he is.”
“He doesn’t care about people’s conscience. He wants them to follow God’s bidding. There’s a difference.”
“You’re grating on my nerves. I won’t tell her, end of story. For now things are good between us.”
Seamus shrugged. “Maybe you’re just worried she’ll run once her search for Imogen doesn’t bind her to New York.”
“Careful,” I warned. “If I wanted my brain dissected, I’d go to a shrink.”
“It’s not your brain I’m talking about.”
I pulled my gun and pressed it against his balls. “All right, Seamus. You’re my best friend, I’ll give you that, and I’ll be very sad if I have to watch you bleed out at my feet, but you should know when to shut your fucking mouth. Maeve will be heartbroken if you lose your dick.”
The driver looked ready to pull the car off the road and run away.
Seamus raised his palms. “I’m just worried, my friend. No need for violence. And it was my mouth that enraged you, not my balls, so please aim at my face.”
“You bastard. I still need your loose mouth for business, not your hairy balls.”
“My voice would be unpleasantly high if you castrate me.”
“Oh shut up.” I shoved my gun back into my holster. I didn’t like to think about the fact that Seamus might be right, that Aislinn would run if she found out her sister didn’t need saving, and I liked even less that it seriously bothered me. Our marriage was still far from my ideal, but I liked Aislinn, her feistiness, her caring side—even if she hadn’t showed it to me yet—and her wanton innocence. If she ran, I’d probably hunt and catch her, but it would turn our marriage into something even less like what I aimed for.
After I’d picked up Aislinn and Finn at the airport, we rode home together. Aislinn never left Finn’s side. She carried Finn up the stairs. Seeing her motherly side made me appreciate her all the more, especially considering how lacking her sister was in that department as I’d witnessed in Miami yesterday.
She finally set Finn down when I’d unlocked the apartment door and gestured them inside. He was a tiny slip of a boy. I had several nephews and nieces, more than I cared to count (I had thirty-two cousins and they all bred like rabbits), and some were his age but definitely taller and sturdier. He didn’t release Aislinn’s hand as she showed him the apartment. I had a feeling she wouldn’t have left his side anyway. The protective vibes she gave off were strong. She was in mother bear mode and ready to bite my head off if I made the wrong move toward the boy.
I carried the three bags with toys into the guest bedroom. Aislinn had bought Spiderman bedlinen to make it more child friendly. When she entered the small room with Finn by her side, he immediately tugged her toward the bed and touched the linen.
“If you like spiderman, you’ll like some of these,” I said as I set down the bags in the center of the room. Finn eyed them curiously but didn’t approach them. “Go ahead,” I encouraged him.
He looked at Aislinn for approval, and when she nodded, he pulled her toward the bags. Soon everything I’d bought for him was lined up carefully on the ground. His favorites were a spiderman figure and an airplane with a remote control. I watched him and Aislinn for a while, how happy she looked with the boy around, as if a piece of her that had been missing was finally whole again. With a last glance at them, I returned to the living room then went over to check the fridge. I grinned when I spotted a container filled with what looked like another stew.
I opened it and took a whiff. Beef this time. I could get used to Aislinn’s cooking. It reminded me of my childhood, of Ireland, of a time when my only worry had been if I’d be able to prank Balor and get away with it unscathed. That had rarely been the case. Balor had always been too cautious. Later when the twins joined in on the pranking, I could blame many of my own devious endeavors on them, though eventually that didn’t work either.
Chuckling at the memories, I grabbed a pot and dumped the stew into it. Aislinn should open a restaurant. I’d be her best customer and many of my men who missed our home country as much as I did would spend their lunch breaks there too. Finn’s laughter rang out, followed soon after by Aislinn’s. I’d lived alone since I moved to New York. Before that I’d either lived with my family at the manor or shared an apartment with Balor and then later Aran in Dublin. I hadn’t been lonely. I’d had company—my men, friends like Timothy and Seamus, my brothers when they visited, and for short period of times women. I’d always known I wanted to marry and have children. For over decades the men of our clan had managed to be fathers and gang leaders, had been the brutal hand in business and the strict but fair hand in the family.
But in the last few years, and over many failed match-making attempts of my father whenever I set foot on Irish ground, I started to wonder if I’d ever feel the true desire to marry. Aislinn caught me by surprise. I was known for rash decisions, for hot headedness, though I had improved over the years, or so I’d thought.
Welcoming Aislinn into my home had never felt like an intrusion. Even if she resisted me however she could, I enjoyed her presence, not just because of the very entertaining sex.
I liked coming home to a woman, even if she rarely smiled at me. I had a feeling I wouldn’t mind Finn’s presence either. I didn’t fancy becoming his father figure. The boy had baggage at his young age, thanks to his horrible parents, and I doubted he’d readily accept me into his life. But I’d protect him as I would my nephews and nieces.
Seamus had often bugged me about settling down. He’d had his eyes set on Maeve for a long time so their marriage was set in stone and he’d been the annoying type who wanted the same sappy happiness for everyone around him too.
I was always too busy, my mind occupied on expanding our business in New York over the last decade. Irish clans had business in New York and the East Coast since the nineteenth century due to the Irish-Italian mob wars of the 1970s most clans stopped operating in this part of the world and returned to their roots in Ireland or tried to live a normal life. Our family had never fully left New York but our business had been affected by the war. Luckily, many of the Italian families had moved on to the West Coast or dealt in other underground business than we partake in. The Italians had their fingers in construction and gambling, and we had no interest in any of that. We focused on what we did best: racketeering, gun trafficking, and contract killing.
The stew bubbled on the stove.
“It’ll burn if you don’t stir and turn the temperature down,” Aislinn said as she came into the room.
I did as she said. “That’s why I always use the microwave.”
“It’s blasphemous to warm a home cooked stew in a microwave.”
“We’ve been prone to blasphemous actions in the past,” I said with a smirk. Aislinn’s face turned red, and she looked back into Finn’s room. But the boy was busy trying to steer the airplane with the remote control.
“Not in front of Finn.”
“I doubt he’ll understand the innuendo.”
“He’s intelligent.”
“I didn’t say he wasn’t,” I said, regarding her defensive stance. I wasn’t sure what she’d witnessed in the past, but it was clear she was used to jumping to Finn’s defense. I put the spoon down and moved to her side, sliding my arm around her waist, despite her tension. “But sexual innuendos are beyond a child’s understanding.” She resisted when I tried to pull her in for a kiss. I chuckled. “I think Finn will survive a bit of kissing.” I kissed her forehead then pulled away.
“Finn, dinner’s ready!” Aislinn called. She was definitely tense, as if she feared I’d jump on her. I’d grown up in an Irish Catholic family in the countryside. I knew to limit my dirty talk and groping to when we were alone.
Finn came into the room, the spiderman figure in his hand. He tugged on Aislinn’s hip. She tousled his hair. “Wh-wh-wha-t-t-t-t d-d-d-d-o w-w-w-e eat?”
His stutter was stronger in my presence and I had some trouble understanding him. Aislinn was familiar with his speech and I’d probably get used to it soon as well, and not even notice it anymore.
“Aislinn’s famous stew,” I said with a wink at him.
He gave me a shy smile before he hid behind Aislinn. We settled at the table, each with a bowl of stew.
Finn soon began to recount every second of his journey while picking pieces of potato and carrot out of his stew.
Aislinn shook her head with a loving smile at Finn. My chest constricted seeing it. Fuck. Maybe Seamus was right.
“You set the bar really high letting him fly business class for his first flight,” she said.
“I told you I would spoil him rotten.”
Finn glanced between Aislinn and me, biting his lower lip. He didn’t look like Aislinn or her sister. He’d obviously inherited his looks from his father’s side: light brown hair and pale blue eyes plus plenty of freckles.
Finn put down his spoon after extracting the vegetables from the stew.
“If you want to grow big and strong, you need to eat your meat,” I said with a nod toward the beef cubes in his bowl. The moment the words left my mouth, I could have kicked my stupid ass. Those were the same words that my parents and grandparents had nagged me with when they’d tried to force me to eat my vegetables. He looked down and squirmed on the chair. “I d-d-d-d-d—” He looked up at Aislinn for help.
“He doesn’t like meat very much, so he doesn’t have to eat it,” she said to me but she was looking at Finn. “Are you full?”
Finn nodded.
“Okay, but you’ll have to stay at the table until we’re done.”
Most of the boys in my family were little troublemakers. Finn was a shy kid. I’d definitely have to reconsider my approach.
After dinner, Finn went back into his room to play some more, though he looked dead tired. He was probably running on pure excitement.
Aislinn cleaned the table, but I could tell she had something to say. I had to admit I was surprised she hadn’t questioned me about my meeting with Sergej yet. Even if she didn’t know about my trip to Miami, she thought Sergej had given me information about her sister. Maybe she wanted to wait until Finn was asleep to avoid him eavesdropping. Must be hard for the poor kid to be abandoned by his mother like that, especially since his father was absent his whole life too.
“You have something to say,” I said as I stepped behind her. She turned, her back against the counter as I supported my arms on either side of her.
“Please don’t force Finn to eat if he doesn’t want to.”
“It was just a saying I often heard as a kid.”
She swallowed, getting emotional. She rarely got teary eyed around me, and if her eyes filled with tears, they were usually angry ones. “Finn’s had sensory difficulties in the past. Some textures trigger his gag reflex. It took a long time to get him to eat chunky food at all. I don’t want him to regress. He’s moving at his own pace, and that’s okay.”
I had so many jokes about gag reflexes but even I wasn’t that much of an insensitive oaf. “You’re the boss when it comes to Finn.”
Aislinn raised an eyebrow.
“You’re my good girl in all the areas that matter.”
She huffed and I stole a kiss, my tongue sneaking into her mouth before she could push me away. For a moment she relaxed into the kiss then tore her lips from mine.
“Aren’t you curious about my meeting with Sergej?” I murmured.
She slanted a look toward Finn’s room. “Later.”
I wasn’t in a rush to lie to her. Maybe telling her the truth would have been the right thing to do, but it would only complicate everyone’s lives. Imogen obviously didn’t give a damn about her family. I could only hope that one day Aislinn would manage to feel the same about her sister.
